DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Public school teachers would appeal for a monthly budget support from the city government as additional help for insufficient monthly salary.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Davao Region mounted a lobby at the city council for a P2000 monthly local allowance and additional quarterly rice subsidy of P2500 that they say “ will provide help in meeting with their daily expenses. “
In his privileged speech in Tuesday’s regular session, Act-Davao City Division President Reynaldo Pardillo said the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) data that a family with five members needs P42, 000 monthly incomes to live decently.
Pardillo said that the current salary rate for teaching and non-teaching personnel does not meet the daily needs and other expenses of a family of five. Currently, the Department of Education (DepEd) salary rate starts at P20, 179 for Teacher I, for Teacher II it receives P22, 149 and P24, 224 for Teacher III.
“Many of our teachers received a take-home pay of P9000-5000 of after all the deductions including loans,” said Pardillo.
In their research, the group revealed that at least 22 cities in the country have been giving a local allowance for DepEd teachers and non-teaching personnel.
The cities are Quezon City who gives P2,000 monthly allowances and allocates an annual budget of 1 Million for health examination for DepEd teachers and non-teaching personnel. They also sponsored the Annual Leadership Training Seminar for Teachers.
The City of Makati also provides a monthly allowance of P3, 500 and additional P500 annual rice allowance.
“Even with insufficient salary, we need to augment budget from our own pocket to purchase teacher materials as school budget for Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) is not enough” Pardillo added.
Although the teachers received support from the members of the council after Councilor Pilar Braga endorsed the appeal, , Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang, who chaired the committee on finance, ways and means told the group that currently the city has a lot of priority programs that also needs to be funded.
He said the P2000 monthly support would need P240 million for some 10,000 teachers and non-teaching personnel.
“The appeal is good but we have a limited budget,” said Dayanghirang, who said that while he sympathized with the teachers, the city council should not also give teachers a false hope.
Pardillo said that they target to send the gathered signatures to the office of Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio by the end of this month.(davaotoday.com)
